The Italo effect is undeniable.
The chains, the hair, the cars. When he launches into the air, arms windmilling in celebration, a tsunami of opinions crashes across social media. Love and hate in equal measure – nothing in between.
It’s the same with Medina. Three world titles in, and still, people either worship or despise him.
Why?
Surfing has always been a colonized space, its mythology built around Western ideals of what “authentic” surf culture represents.
The recent resurgence of Italo Ferreira makes one thing blatantly obvious. His flashy, larger-than-life approach threatens the carefully constructed identity many have emotionally invested in.
Surfing’s relationship with its most polarizing figures isn’t about surfing at all. It’s about us and our desperate need to protect what we think matters.
The tribal nature of these reactions reveals something deeper about human psychology, too.
We need villains and heroes to make sense of our world.
When someone like Italo emerges from poverty in Baía Formosa to shake the established order to its core, learning to surf on a piece of styrofoam because actual surfboards were unattainable luxuries, he forces us to confront our own biases we’ve internalized about who gets to succeed, who deserves admiration, and who should remain on the margins.
What’s interesting is how this polarization falls along predictable lines. Notice how the most polarizing surfers often come from outside surfing’s traditional power centers?
Their approaches haven’t been filtered through decades of Western surf media conditioning about what constitutes “cool.” Instead, they bring expressions authentic to their own cultural contexts and personal journeys.
You see it in the comment sections. The coded language. The thinly veiled assertions about what passes as “respect for the sport.” As if there’s only one way to honor what happens between human and wave.
Sports thrive on this tension. Without the push-pull dynamic, what would even grip you? Scores, heats, points only matter when something’s at stake emotionally.
Think about it.
When you watch a heat, do you watch it because you just appreciate technical merit? Or are you invested in someone’s success or failure?
The answer is obvious.
Conflict is ancient. Necessary. The storylines that engage us emerge from that primal space where opposing forces collide.
The herd accelerates these divisions.
One opinion catches fire, spreads through platforms, and becomes gospel. Suddenly, everyone’s protecting some mythical “soul of surfing” – a concept that’s shifted continuously since Polynesians first stood on wooden planks.
Next time you feel that surge of emotion watching a surfer that irks you, ask yourself: are you reacting to their surfing or what they represent?
You might not like the answer.
But when you’ve had nothing, maybe you celebrate everything.
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